Fleet Week Adventure

Fleet week in San Diego! Every few minutes one of the Navy's ships would sail by. I couldn't tell you which ship was which, but I can say most were grey, and the sailors stood on the deck at attention as each passed. Here's a shot of the USS Midway (the museum) on the left, with one of the many grey passing ships on the right.


The highlight was a free tour of the USS Comstock, docked in San Diego. It was commissioned in 1990, and serves as a transport vessel. The line was about 30min long, but the tour was well worth it. Every year you get a different ship.


While on deck we saw the hovercraft fly by. It's incredibly loud and big, and moves very slowly, but from an angle can appear invisible.


The marines on board get their own dentist and medical officer, but by far the best thing we saw was the war room. It's got screens showing where all the ships in the world are stationed, as well as navigation charts, radars, and all types of old computers that no one uses any more. The whole room's lit with creepy blue light, I guess to calm people down in case something goes wrong. It makes photography difficult of course.


And of course they showed us the guns. This ship isn't made for combat, so the weapons aren't impressive. This is the largest gun on ship, and is operated electronically. The guy did shoot it, too bad it was unloaded. It would have hit the Midway.